


Caution: Construction Zone Ahead

by thevillainofthisstory



Series: Marching Inexorably Forward [7]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Panic Attack, Pre-Slash, anxiety mention, bad but not really graphic, but nothing graphic, but they make up, danny gets injured a few times, ghost speak, gore maybe?, mentor vlad, spoilers for books you should have read in high school, they get in a fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 10:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16157057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevillainofthisstory/pseuds/thevillainofthisstory
Summary: Danny and Vlad decide to give their new mentor/protege relationship a try and it goes disastrously. Honestly, they shouldn't have expected anything different. But with time, effort, and communication, they're willing to make things work. In other news, something or someone is releasing ghosts from the ghost zone against their will.





	Caution: Construction Zone Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Another update! I'm really proud of this one. And it's so long!  
> I really admire authors who reply to every comment, I think that's just a nice thing to do. It then occurred to me that I'm an author, and therefore it's a nice thing that I should probably be doing. So from now on I'm going to try to respond to everyone's comments.

“Did you tell your parents where you were going this time?” Vlad asked before Danny had even opened his front door all the way. Of course Vlad was still waiting for him in the foyer, in the dark. Even after two weeks of meeting for “mentoring”, Vlad still doubted Danny’s sincerity. Danny was beginning to doubt his own sanity at this point. He didn’t understand what bizarre world he was living in; instead of sneaking out to parties like a normal teenager, or to fight ghosts like he had been for the past three years, Danny was sneaking out of his house in the middle of a Friday night to get a ghost biology lesson from his ex-enemy. Life was weird like that sometimes. Or at least, Danny’s life was weird like that sometimes. Danny figured that at this point, he wouldn’t recognize normal if it kicked him in the shin.

“No,” he replied, closing the door softly. No need to draw attention to the teenage boy entering the mayor’s unlit mansion at 11:16pm. “I’m not asking again until Sunday, remember?”

“Of course I remembered our arrangement, I was simply ensuring that you did,” Vlad declared airily.

Danny scowled. It had been his idea to intermittently ask his parents for permission to visit Vlad for various fake reasons. They were having dinner, or Vlad was helping him with a project, mundane stuff like that. The rest of the time, Danny would sneak out at night. Eventually, Danny’s plan was to not need to sneak or arrange things with his parents beforehand; Danny spending time at Vlad’s place would become a normal part of their lives and no one would be surprised by how sudden it seemed that the two of them were getting along.

And they were, mostly. Vlad and Danny were trying _very_ hard to get along. Which is why Danny gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and said, “I’ve gotten pretty good at lying to my parents by this point, you don’t need to worry about me.”

At this, Vlad’s smug expression smoothed out into the blank face he had started using to mask, well, a lot of things. Sometimes Vlad withheld his negative thoughts in order to keep the peace. Other times, and Danny assumed this was one of them, Vlad hid…well, Danny wasn’t sure. A normal person might feel regret in this instance, or maybe in their case it struck Vlad as all too relatable a situation. But Danny didn’t know, because Vlad was trying to hide it. He couldn’t hide that he was hiding it, but the emotion itself never leaked through. The entire situation frustrated Danny to no end. He was used to having Vlad’s uncensored, unrepentant thoughts and feelings flung at him constantly. If this was the price of getting along, Danny wasn’t sure he wanted it.

“Of course,” Vlad said neutrally. Turning away from Danny, Vlad headed down the dark hallway towards the lab. Danny followed, grateful for his innate night vision. “Today, we will be discussing the aspects of our powers that can be used without transforming.”

“Like what?” Danny asked, both out of legitimate interest and a willingness to move on from whatever had caused Vlad to shut down on him.

“You tell me.”

“Ummm,” Danny pondered for a second, “Night vision, obviously, otherwise I would have tripped and fallen on my face by now. I can walk through walls like this, and turn invisible. There’s other stuff too, but I can’t do it as well, like my ice powers or healing or any ectoblasts. Then there are the powers that I can’t use at all unless I transform. I can’t use my ghostly wail, or fly, or…change states? Is that what you’d call it? When you turn part of your body into vapor? Or smoke, I turned into a cloud of smoke once. But I haven’t been able to do it again.”

“Changing states is an apt description. We’ll be focusing on the firs two categories you mentioned, the complete control and partial control categories. What do you typically use them for?”

“Whatever the hell I feel like.”

Vlad sighed and typed in the code to open the door down to the lab. Danny counted that as a little victory. What did Vlad think he used his powers for? The greater good, all the time every time? Hardly. He was a teenage boy with poor impulse control and way too much power.

They headed down the stairs into the lab without another word. Danny went over to one of the drawers and pulled out his notebook for their sessions. Neither of them felt comfortable leaving such sensitive information lying around the Fenton household. Being ripped apart molecule by molecule was always just one slip up away.

Grabbing a pen from the cup of them on the counter, Danny settle into his chair on one side of Vlad’s desk. Vlad sat in the chair on the other side. This is how they had conducted every meeting so far. Vlad would introduce a topic, Danny would add his two cents, Vlad would lecture while Danny took notes, and then they’d call it a night. They never even used their powers, let alone transformed. It was all theory and diagrams. Vlad never even explained how he discovered any of the stuff that he was telling Danny. That was the most disappointing part: the lack of anecdotes.

For the next three hours, Vlad droned on and on about physiology this and core access that. Danny wrote it all down dutifully in his best handwriting. He asked exactly four questions and Vlad had answers for one and a half of them. They stayed completely on task, and when their allotted time was up, Vlad escorted Danny back upstairs to the door and bid him a cordial goodnight.

It was the worst three hours of his life.

Well, probably not the worst of his **entire** life. But it sucked. The things they had given up to keep the peace, like their banter and basically every part of their personalities, were not worth what they were getting in return. But bringing that up would probably start a fight and ruin all the “progress” they had made.

Danny waited until the door had closed to turn invisible and start walking home. They couldn’t risk transforming in the open in Vlad’s neighborhood; the flash from the rings would alert every security camera in the gated community that a certain ghost boy had decided to haunt their street. Vlad, as the mayor, did not need that kind of potential attention, being linked to the ghost boy in any way, shape, or form.

Dragging his feet, Danny trudged along the sidewalk until he came to the gate, which he phased through. Only then did he transform into Danny Phantom and fly home.

The only thing waiting for Danny upon his return was his bed, which he collapsed into gratefully. Stupid truce. Since when were they so careful about their powers? If Danny had known that agreeing to become Vlad’s apprentice would involve what was essential a step backwards in their relationship, he would never have gone for it.

As he drifted off to sleep, Danny tried to assure himself that it was all going to be worth it. Eventually.

* * *

 

Vlad watched from the window as Daniel disappeared and, presumably, made his way home. Straining with his ghost sense, Vlad mentally followed the younger halfa down the street until he could no longer feel Daniel’s ectosignature. The teen did not seem to have used his powers for anything beyond invisibility, and Vlad had no idea why. Daniel was more than welcome to use his powers in the house, yet he never did. Perhaps some distrust still lingered between them and Daniel felt uncomfortable using his abilities so casually in front of Vlad. The older halfa seriously doubted that was the case, especially after Daniel’s flippant comment that he used his gifts for “whatever the hell” he felt like.

Sighing, Vlad floated up through the ceiling and to his bedroom. This is not what he had wanted.

When Daniel had agreed to become his protégé, Vlad had been quietly elated. He had been forgiven his indiscretions and given his heart’s desire all within the span of a half-hour conversation. It was, frankly, a miracle. Obviously, it had been too good to be true.

Daniel was reserved during their meetings. He purposefully withheld the wit that Vlad so admired. Even Vlad’s attempt at forcing a rise out of the younger halfa had not garnered the reaction that Vlad craved. He wanted Daniel’s fire, his sharpness and volatility and passion. But all he was being given were carefully neutral statements and silent deference. It was maddening.

So in return, Vlad held his tongue. He never let anything through that might discomfit his young pupil, even when it was difficult. Especially when it was difficult. Tonight, when Daniel had mentioned his skills at deceiving those who were close to him, Vlad wanted to commiserate. He wanted to tell his little badger that he understood how lonely it was, how hurtful it could be. But Vlad didn’t. Because Daniel deserved more than the platitudes of man who had never truly gone through what Daniel was enduring. He lied to the world at large, but Daniel suffered through maintaining his carefully crafted deceit to people who actually loved and cared about him. It wasn’t quite the same, and Vlad wasn’t confident that Daniel would appreciate the sentiment.

As he went about his evening routine, Vlad thought of the lesson itself. Daniel had asked several adroit questions that Vlad had honestly never considered. But rather than wanting to enter into a debate, or perhaps engage in some experimentation, Daniel had accepted the lack of answers and allowed the topic to die. Did the boy possess curiosity for anything that didn’t end in small-scale mayhem?

This was not the Daniel upon whom Vlad had bestowed his affectionate regard. Vlad wanted to provoke a fight, force Daniel to explain himself. But he would not, for fear of losing what he had wanted for so long. Daniel might leave him if they quarreled. It was a pathetic thought, but it was true. Getting to this point had taken more than Vlad had ever thought possible. For the first time in his life, Vlad was not about to ruin things by demanding more.

He reminded himself of that fact as he drifted off to sleep, refusing to admit that this intricate, careful dance was not what he had wanted at all.

* * *

 

“And you’re sure that you’re not bothering Vlad by going over so often?” his mom asked for the fourth time. Danny stole a glance at the clock on the microwave. He was supposed to leave for Vlad’s place ten minutes ago, but his mom had all kinds of questions about why he was going over and how long he was going to be there. It honestly surprised him. The past two times he had asked, his parents had waved him off without even looking up from their work.

Danny had a few ideas about what Vlad might do to him if he showed up late to halfa tutoring, and none of them were pleasant. He had to leave, **now**.

Edging towards the door, Danny once again ~~lied~~ explained, “Vlad _literally_ asked me to come by. He wanted a spare pair of hands down in his lab. He didn’t say for what, but I think it has to do with some stuff I’ve been struggling with in my chemistry class. It’s a win-win.”

“I suppose that’s alright,” his mom relented. “But you’d tell us if anything was wrong, wouldn’t you sweetheart?”

No, he absolutely would not. “Sure thing,” he promised instead with what he hoped was a loveable grin. Danny turned to hurry for the door. He was going to have to break their unspoken rule about using his powers to come and go from the mansion. At this point, Danny didn’t know which the greater sin was: showing up late, or dropping in through Vlad’s roof rather than through the front door.

“Wait honey, before you go, take some of these cookies with you!” his mom called. Danny gritted his teeth and headed back into the kitchen. His mom pushed a container of ghost shaped sugar cookies into his hands. “I know how much of a sweet tooth you two have.”

“Thanks!” Danny said, grabbing the container and running for the door. Not even cookies could save him from the mess he was about to walk into, Danny was sure of it.

Ducking into the first alley he came to, Danny transformed and was flying across town before the white rings had even vanished. The journey was a blur, partly because he was flying so fast and partly because he was preoccupied.

Vlad waited for him in the foyer before every meeting because he had trust issues. Like, a couple different kinds of trust issues. He didn’t trust Danny to walk down to the lab without supervision, but Danny couldn’t really fault him for that one. The younger halfa had a tendency towards destruction. But Vlad also waited because he didn’t really think that Danny would show up. Which was stupid, because Danny hadn’t missed a meeting yet. And this was going to be the first time he had ever been late. And that was probably going to ruin everything.

Dropping to the ground, Danny transformed again. The sun was already starting to set. Checking his watch did nothing to alleviate his fears; Danny was already two minutes late, and he still had to walk the three-quarters of a mile from the gate to Vlad’s mansion. Without using his powers, it was impossible. He could make it if he used them, but that would put him in a different kind of hot water.

Tightening his grip on the box of cookies, Danny began walking.

It took eight minutes. Daniel was ten minutes late by the time he rang the doorbell.

The door opened on its own to reveal Vlad standing a few yards down the entryway, once again in the dark, his eyes glowing an angry red. Shit.

Danny took a deep breath and crossed the threshold. The door slammed shut behind him, causing him to wince. This was going about as well as he expected.

“So nice of you to deign to grace me with your presence,” Vlad drawled, instantly causing Danny’s temper to flare.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Danny retorted before he could reign in his emotions. Well, in for a penny. “I had to-”

“Had to what? What could possibly have been more important than this meeting that we arranged _weeks_ ago?”

Over two weeks’ worth of biting his tongue and keeping the peace, and Vlad managed to break the floodgates in two stupid sentences. “Do you have any idea what I have to do to get out of the house?” Danny demanded. He felt his eyes shift to green but couldn’t be bothered to care.

“No, Daniel, I don’t, because all you said on the matter was that it wouldn’t be a problem,” Vlad said sharply. “And like a fool, I believed you. Obviously, I have forgotten that I am dealing with the great Danny Phantom and his easy solutions. Break a building here, lie to my friends and family over there, and hope that someone more competent comes along to clean up the mess, that’s your usual modus operandi, isn’t it?”

“At least I give enough of a shit about this stupid town to try!” Danny shouted. His clenched fists began to glow green. “Where the fuck are you, Vlad? When Technus and Skulker and all the other idiot ghosts are tearing up the town, where are you? You’re definitely **not** out there helping me! I’m doing my best while you sit here waiting for the clean up so you can gloat about what a shitty job I did. News flash, asshole, you can’t gloat if you don’t get off your ass and do something useful for someone other than yourself!”

“You are the one who is so insistent on using your powers for theatrical heroics. No one is making you do these things! You owe them nothing!” Vlad snarled, stalking forward until he and Danny were toe to toe. Danny stood his ground. This was probably going to end with him getting his ass handed to him on a platter, but by this point Danny was spoiling for a fight.

“It’s not about owing anyone anything!” Danny yelled in return. Out came the old argument. It always boiled down to this. “Why even have these powers if I don’t use them for something!”

“Something other than sneaking into the girls’ locker room and getting petty revenge on bullies, you mean?” Vlad asked rhetorically. “There’s so much more to our abilities than-”

“I wouldn’t know,” Danny interrupted, “since you never actually tell me anything! I would never have agreed to this if I knew it was going to be another class. I’m already failing over half of the ones I _actually_ have to take, I’d rather not add another one on top of those to fuck up.”

“This was a mistake,” Vlad declared, turning to walk away. “ ** _You_** were a mistake. Of all the people who could have been given these marvelous gifts, it had to be **_you_**.”

Without thinking, Danny reached out and grabbed at Vlad’s shoulder, spinning the older halfa around. He could feel the tightness in his chest and his breathing was coming fast and shallow. Danny had to get the last word in and bolt before the panic attack set in. “So were you, you pompous self-absorbed failure! The universe didn’t give you powers as an apology or because you deserved them. You ended up like this because of a misplaced can of soda. And even with that one in seven billion chance, you’ve still not amounted to anything other than a bitter, pathetic, lonely-”

“ENOUGH!” Vlad bellowed, grabbing Danny’s upper arms and shaking him roughly. The box of cookies that Danny had somehow managed to hold onto fell to the floor, but he had bigger issues, like the smell of burning flesh and the searing pain in his upper arms. “I will not listen to-”

Danny reached out with his still glowing hands and at point blank range, blasted Vlad back. It wasn’t enough force to even knock the older halfa over, but it got him to let go. Danny couldn’t feel his upper arms anymore. Vlad had probably singed the nerves. Given how bad the smell was, he could only imagine how bad he looked. And at this point, he couldn’t care less.

Vlad, however, seemed to have come back to his senses. “Daniel, I didn’t mean-” he began, taking a panicked step toward Danny, but it was too late.

“Shut up,” Danny barked as he transformed, “And fuck off.”

Leaping up into the air, Danny flew up and out of the mansion. If Vlad knew what was good for him, he wouldn’t follow.

Danny only flew for a few minutes before landing in the first open space he spotted. The park. Dropping the transformation immediately threw Danny into a panic attack.

He collapsed breathlessly on the grass, gasping and rocking while tears streamed down his face. Fuck, it was going to be one of _those_ , where his mind was pretty much unaffected, but his body wasn’t getting the memo.

Danny knew exactly what had set him off: Vlad calling him a mistake. He already knew that. When Danny had first gotten his powers, he spent a lot of time thinking that. About how he shouldn’t be alive, how his split existence was, at best, a crime against nature. Danny had been a champion at self-loathing, at first. But the longer he had his powers, and the more good he was able to do with them, the better he felt about himself. That’s what Vlad just didn’t seem to understand.

The first thing he had to do was wrap up this panic attack. The burns on his arms needed tending to; he couldn’t walk in the house, past his parents, with third degree burns on his arms. Danny would have to explain to them in the morning how he had miraculously healed overnight. And then they would confront Vlad about what they had been doing “in the lab” and everything would go to hell in a handbasket. Even more so than it already had. Whenever things looked bad, Danny liked to comfort himself by remembering that at least his parents didn’t know he was a ghost. His life could be made infinitely worse.

Alternating between holding his breath and taking deep, slow breaths, Danny was able to calm his heart rate to an acceptable level. That was the shitty thing about panic attacks: once you had one, the chances of having another skyrocketed. Two in one month, after having gone an entire year without them, didn’t bode well. Stupid Vlad.

No, not thinking of Vlad at the moment. Steeling himself, Danny looked down at his right arm to assess the damage. The skin was blistered and shiny, with sections that were red and peeling on the outside and a charred black section in the middle. Danny assumed that Vlad’s palms got hotter than his fingers, making the center of the wound crispier.

The best course of action would be to change into his ghost form for a while and let his powers do their thing. Danny wasn’t as familiar with healing burns as he was with other injuries. He figured that if he could regrow bones, skin shouldn’t be a problem. How had the burns looked when he first got them? Because Danny had already transformed once, that meant that some regeneration had already happened. Not to be dramatic, but Vlad had probably melted the flesh off his bones. Gross.

Pointedly not thinking about Vlad or his most recent injury, Danny switched forms yet again. Some mindless flying while his arms healed would do him a lot of good.

* * *

 

Luckily, Danny and Vlad weren’t scheduled to meet again until Friday. Danny had had five days to figure out how he wanted to handle the situation, beyond his initial desire to never see Vlad again except to lock him in a Fenton Thermos forever. But that was a little drastic.

By Friday, Danny had reached the uncomfortable realization that he shared at least half the blame for that argument. It occurred to him that they had never sat down and discussed boundaries or expectations. Danny knew that Vlad wanted to not be lonely anymore. Vlad knew that Danny wanted someone to share the nastier side of his powers with. That was _it_. What they had was a failure to communicate that had blown up in their faces.

Honestly, Danny thought as he dug through his locker, this wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Sure, Vlad had maimed him a little bit, but they hadn’t turned it into a knock down, drag out fight. That was progress, given their history. And speaking of their history, both of them should have known better than to expect to get this whole cessation of hostilities thing right on the first try.

It had taken a week’s worth of sleepless nights to get to this point, but Danny had finally decided that he was going to go to his scheduled meeting with Vlad and actually try to talk with him. Coming to that decision hadn’t been easy. Danny had always hated admitting when he was wrong. He liked to think he was getting better about it; this epiphany had only taken a few days, unlike last time when he avoided Vlad for weeks. Why did personal growth always have to be so hard?

**BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP *** _GHOST ATTACK IN PROGRESS THIS IS NOT A DRILL_ *** BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEP**

Well, there went the rest of the school day. Ducking into a corner away from the throngs of fleeing students, Danny pulled at the ghostly energy that always seemed to be pulsing just beneath his skin. These days, the transformation was as easy as breathing. It was almost funny to think back and remember how much he used to struggle to make the change from one kind of freak to another.

As soon as the white light faded, Danny flew off in search of whichever ghost had decided to ruin his afternoon.

He didn’t have to look very far. Behemoth was rampaging down the street outside the school, bellowing at pedestrians and smashing anything he could get his four fists on. That was odd. Behemoth didn’t like leaving the ghost zone; no wonder he was rampaging.

“Hey buddy,” Danny cooed, getting the beast’s attention. The ghost stopped mid-throw, a four-door sedan gripped in its claws. “Could you put that down for me?”

“W̧H͘E҉̤̳R̵̠̱E͕̺ ̵̼A̴M̮͟ ̬̱̻͝I̩̦̜̥͚̤?̺̭̘̹͜” it screeched in ghost speak. Danny thanked his ghostly stars that he had taken the time to learn the language from the ghost zone’s smallest inhabitants. The wisps had been happy to teach him, and it was certainly coming in handy. “W͇̮͓͇͙͈͘H̱̜̜̠͓͚A̯̲̙͜ͅT͚̯ ͇̖̜̘͖̺͢I͇͓̲̣S͕̠̟͈̼ͅͅ ̮̼̗̱̣Ḥ̦A̹̙̦̤͙ͅP̡P̛̬̳̯̞̗̳E̠͎̦̦̭͎̩͘N͏̜̙͔͔ͅI̻͈̩̤͍̺̲N̯G?”

“S̘̠̭o͇̭̥̹̦͖̰m͎̩̭̟͙e̫̹͓͎̖o͕̰͇͡n͏͚̱̰͙ẹ̼͓͖͡ ̼̬̺̺̫̭̪to͍̗̘̺͎͍o̡k̹͓͈̩̖̰͘ ̲̤̟̱͇͉y̪̙̗̤̜oṳ̣̭͜ ̝͉̭̭̼͈̼͠o̺̩̺̩̥ṷ͟t̡͈ ̶̲͍̲o͉̺̲͚̟f̝͕ ̩̝̖̤̩̗th̻͇̩͔͞e̶̻̠ ̻̦̮͖g̞̜̞̹h̟̯̼o̱̖̖s͈̩t̨̪̯̱ ̹̤͙z̳̤o̧̯̮̯̹̘̥̰n̕e͚̤͢.͚̤͉ ̧͇͖̳̮̗L̷̯e̢̪̝t͙̘̣͡'̖̟̩͇̬͔̹s͡ ͚g̴͓̹̩̦e͚̝͇͇͎͡ͅt̻̟̤ ̢̻̝̩y̛̩̗͎o͈̞̙̫͍̱u̬̜̹͈̬ ̷̙͚͍̹̣͚̖b͍ą͙͈͉̮c̡̼̺͖̪̘͕͉k͙͎͡ ̤h̤̩͈̕o͏̪̮̥̯m͏̣̘̤̯̮̖̻ẹ̢,” Danny replied as soothingly as he could. Pulling out the Fenton Thermos, Danny aimed the beam at the distressed monster. There was no reason to waste any time fighting or trading banter; Behemoth didn’t actually want to be there.

“Tẖ̲͍͙̹͠ͅa̬̪̜͇̺n̻̜k̯͢ ̼̯̯̰y̞̪͇̜͙o̤̮u̘͕͖,̨͍ ͓̠͎̗g͉h҉o̹͙̣̞s͎̖̞̫̮t͍̣̺ ̻͔͖͇c̥͍̮hi͈͠l̡̤͓͍d͠,” it muttered as it was sucked into the Thermos. The car it had been holding fell to the ground and landed with a crunch. Oops. Danny slowly twisted the cap back on the Thermos. Behemoth never left the ghost zone willingly. Either someone captured it in the ghost zone and then released it in town because they knew the carnage it could cause, or something had happened in the ghost zone to chase it out. Danny wasn’t a big fan of either of those options, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He had to get to the bottom of this. Besides, Danny wanted to release Behemoth back into the ghost zone sooner rather than later. The poor thing hadn’t chosen to come on a rampage, it was just disoriented and scared. And Danny wasn’t about to send it back home until he knew it was safe.

* * *

 

After several hours of flying through the ghost zone, asking almost every ghost along the way for answers, Danny had found absolutely nothing. Behemoth had no idea how it ended up outside Casper High either. One minute it was patrolling its domain, the next it had been shoved out into the real world. Behemoth wasn’t exactly an easy ghost to shove around. Whoever had managed to capture it had to have been ridiculously powerful. There were only a few ghosts that fit that description, like Clockwork or Pandora, but they were unlikely candidates. The more powerful a ghost was, the less they seemed to want to leave their domain.

Danny didn’t have enough time to sit around and ponder this latest mystery. He had a meeting with a certain fruitloop to get to.

The backdoor would be the quickest route, but probably not the smartest. That’s also what made it so appealing. Sure, Danny was ready to talk things out with Vlad and acknowledge his own part in their fight. But he was also super fucking pissed off that Vlad had burned the skin off his arms, so Danny felt he was entitled to at least one more bad decision that may or may not piss Vlad off.

The portal was, as ever, covered by a huge foam football. Danny grinned as he ducked around the oversized toy; some things never changed. The lab was dark when Danny arrived, which was what he had expected. Vlad was probably waiting for him up in the foyer like the paranoid bastard he was.

Floating up through the ceiling and into the hallway, Danny was surprised to find it vacant. Checking the ridiculous grandfather clock in the hall told Danny that he was only three minutes early. Vlad should have been waiting for him by now. Maybe he didn’t want to see Danny anymore. No, that was a useless thought and Danny wasn’t even going to acknowledge it. Something had probably held Vlad up at work, or he thought that Danny wasn’t going to show up after their disastrous last meeting. Vlad should have known better; Danny was even more stubborn than he was.

Reaching out with his ghost sense, Danny tried to locate Vlad’s ectosignature. It was easier to manage in his ghost form than it would have been to change back, so Danny decided to stay as he was and follow the tugging sensation that would lead him right to Vlad. Up through another level of the mansion and down another hallway, Danny came to a stop just outside the open door of what he assumed was either an office or a library or some combination of the two. How many rooms did one man need?

Vlad was seated on the couch in front of a cold fireplace, one leg crossed over the other with a stack of papers in his hand. Danny cautiously floated into the room, just close enough for a red plume of vapor to escape Vlad’s mouth. The older halfa immediately twisted around, obviously not expecting any spectral visitors, which was stupid. He should have known that Danny was coming.

Seeing Danny floating uncertainly in the doorway, Vlad’s eyes widened comically in shock. Danny offered a tentative smile in return. He hadn’t been blasted out of the room yet, so he counted that as a win.

“I hadn’t expected…after my behavior last week…” Vlad began gingerly, then stopped. He didn’t have anymore of an idea what they were doing than Danny did. Usually that was Danny’s cue to panic; he trusted Vlad to have at least most of the answers. But this time, Danny hoped he was the one who had it all figured out.

“I should have texted you,” Danny blurted. Vlad stared at him blankly, so Danny explained, “Last week. When I was going to be late. I could have texted you. I’ve messaged you for dumber stuff, and I don’t know why I didn’t think to. But I should have, because I know you have trust issues and it’s just the polite thing to do. I’m sorry.”

Vlad nodded a few times. “I should never have called you a mistake. I know the struggles you’ve had with self-worth and it was inappropriate given the changes we are trying to make. We’re both, I believe, rather sensitive over the topic of how we acquired these powers and what we have or have not done with them. By rights, we should not be standing here, and we know it.”

“It’s just something that’s easy to pick at when we’re fighting,” Danny agreed, finally floating into the room and hovering in front of Vlad, eye level with his legs crossed. “We know how to get under each other’s skin.”

“Knowing the intricacies of the other’s fears and doubts makes this venture difficult, especially with our inclination towards hostilities. Perhaps it was a foolish hope to imagine us getting along.”

Danny was shaking his head negatively before Vlad even finished speaking. “I’m not giving up,” he declared, looking into Vlad’s eyes to try and force the other halfa to just _believe_ him. “We’ve just got to communicate more. One little hiccup isn’t going to get me down.”

“One little hiccup?” Vlad scoffed, breaking eye contact to stare at the clock on the mantel. Vlad always seemed to be the first one to break eye contact. Danny wondered why, what was he trying to hide? “The damage I inflicted on your arms was more than a hiccup.”

“I’m not trying to downplay what happened. You sent me into another panic attack with that whole calling me a mistake thing, and I’m pissed at you about it.”

Still refusing to look at Danny, Vlad muttered, “You’re not the only one whose anxieties were affected.”

Danny felt about two inches tall. Five whole days stewing over this mess and Danny had failed to consider, really and truly consider, what his actions had done do Vlad. Sure, he thought the older halfa was probably angry with him. But he had never considered that he could actually inflict the same kind of damage that Vlad had done to him. Obviously, there was still progress to be made on the personal growth front.

All Danny had to say in response to that admission was a heartfelt, “Oh. Shit.”

“Indeed.”

The conversation trickled off. Danny knew what had to be said next: it was time to have a frank, honest discussion about what they wanted out of this relationship. They had to verbalize their boundaries and trust that the other wasn’t going to take advantage of the vulnerability of it all. It was going to be horribly, horribly intimate and require a great deal of tact.

So of course, what came out of his mouth was, “So did you have any of the cookies?” Smooth, Phantom. Real smooth. Totally relevant question.

“No,” Vlad replied, finally looking back to Danny. He was almost…smiling? Maybe Danny’s lack of filter was finally coming in handy. “It seemed inappropriate given the circumstances. You were late because you were bringing us ghost shaped cookies. I couldn’t believe my own idiocy. I picked them up after you left, but as tempting as they looked, I couldn’t bring myself to eat any of them.”

“Maybe we could eat them? Together?” Danny suggested hopefully. “Milk, cookies, and some awkward conversation?”

“That would be acceptable,” Vlad said with a smile. Danny grinned back. Making Vlad smile was going to become one of his new priorities, he could tell. It made the older man look less…severe. “Come along Daniel, I left them in the kitchen.”

Abandoning his paperwork on the couch, Vlad stood and stretched. He took three steps toward the door, stopped, then turned around and gave Danny an appraising look. Danny waited as patiently as he could for Vlad to figure out whatever it was he needed to figure out.

Instead of continuing towards the door, Vlad began to sink down through the floor. Danny followed him back downstairs and through several rooms in silence until they arrived in a kitchen that could have held at least three of Danny’s kitchens at home. Maybe even four. All the appliances and countertops were brushed steel, which barely reflected the dim, ghostly light produced by his body. Vlad sat on one of the barstools at the island in the middle of the room and gestured for Danny to do the same.

As soon as he sat down, the container of cookies came flying out of whatever cabinet they had been stored in, followed by two short glasses. The fridge door opened just long enough for the milk to escape, briefly illuminating the kitchen before snapping closed again. Vlad was such a showoff.

“Alright, where did we go wrong?” Danny asked as he poured milk into each of their glasses. Sure, he could have done that with his powers like Vlad had, except not really. He would have spilled it everywhere. Danny should probably have been working on that. “And don’t, like, try to spare my feelings or whatever. I know honesty isn’t really our thing, but we’re not going to make progress unless we talk about this.”

Vlad accepted his glass of milk and ate two whole cookies before responding, which nearly drove Danny insane. He wanted answers _now_.

“Here are my grievances,” Vlad began, brushing non-existent crumbs out of his goatee. Of course he would start with the stuff he could blame Danny for. Why had Danny expected anything different? “Until today, you never use your powers in my house. You hold your tongue even when I try to provoke you. You ask questions, intelligent questions, and yet you accept it when I have no answers. You’re an aggravating, spiteful, combative young man and for some reason you’ve decided that the best way for us to get along is to pretend to be someone you’re not. What I want is for you to be here. You, the real you. And I want everything that comes with that: arguments and petty fights and conversations that make me want to pull my hair out. Our version of getting along hardly resembles the average person’s vision of comradery, but I want an equal, not a student. Not anymore, at least.”

“That’s,” Danny began slowly, then stopped. It was a lot, honestly. And it sounded pretty good. “That’s pretty much what I want too. I just want to, I don’t know, be me. With you. At the same time? Like, a place where using my powers isn’t a big deal because you have them too would be great. But you weren’t using yours, and it’s your house, so I didn’t use mine. And I don’t mind learning from you, but maybe in a different way? I could just help out with whatever you’re already doing down in the lab, it’s not like I don’t already do that for my parents.”

“That **would** be acceptable, except I know for a fact that you spend most of your time in their lab sabotaging their experiments,” Vlad said wryly as he bit the head off another cookie.

Danny grinned. “You’re welcome. Imagine the mess they could make if more of their stuff worked. Seriously though, I’m not terrible to keep around if you need a spare pair of hands.”

“I’m not certain I would know what to do with a spare pair of hands, but I’m willing to find out,” Vlad conceded. “Until the first time you manage to blow up my lab, then I’m banning you.”

“I just might surprise you,” Danny offered, shoving a dripping cookie into his mouth.

“You often do.”

Ignoring the warm, fluttery feeling in his stomach was difficult, but Danny had just had an epiphany. Vlad. He could ask Vlad about the ghost attack from earlier. “By the way, you don’t know who let Behemoth loose, do you?” Danny asked, hoping that the topic change wasn’t too abrupt.

“I was hoping _you_ could tell _me_ ,” Vlad admitted, rolling with the change in conversation like it was nothing. “It dislikes leaving its lair for other parts of the ghost zone, let alone coming into this world.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t remember anything, and neither did any other ghost I talked to,” Danny explained, giving Vlad a brief rundown of his little investigation. “I didn’t see or sense anything out of the ordinary.”

“You wouldn’t have if the ghost in question could cloak their ectosignature,” Vlad pointed out, but Danny had already thought of that.

“How many ghosts are able to do that? I can count three who can do that **and** overpower Behemoth. One of them is Pariah Dark, so that leaves just two. And they wouldn’t have tossed Behemoth out into the city like that. Well,” Danny amended, thinking of some of the things Clockwork had put him through, “Pandora wouldn’t. Clockwork would, but not without a really, really good reason.”

“You would know their temperaments better than I, little badger. I have never had the dubious pleasure of crossing paths with such distinguished figures,” Vlad said dryly. “And I’m not entirely sure I want to know how you became acquainted with the embodiment of time itself.”

“There was a time travel paradox evil alter ego explosion thing,” Danny summarized. Explaining the whole mess would take far longer than it should because Vlad would have questions. Lots and lots of questions, and most of them would be about Dan. Danny absolutely did not want that. “You were there, but that timeline got diverted so you don’t remember it. Which is for the best, honestly.”

“But what happened to create the-” Vlad began, then stopped himself and shook his head. “Never mind. One mystery at a time. I don’t know who could have or would have released that beast, but if you found nothing then perhaps all we can do is wait for them to act again.”

“Ugh, waiting,” Danny groaned, flopping his head back until his neck popped. “Fine. What do we do now?”

“Now?”

“Yes now, do I have an echo or something?” Danny teased. “We’re not having lesson time and we don’t have enough cookies to sit here snacking for three hours. What do you want to do?”

Vlad was quiet for a moment, staring intently into his almost empty glass of milk like it had all the answers. Danny had to admit that he was enjoying himself. Being able to pop between topics and have someone keep up with him without complaint was pretty great. Not that Sam and Tucker weren’t great! They were still his absolute best friends, his rock through everything life had thrown at him. But maybe, just maybe, having someone else was a good idea. Someone he didn’t have to slow down for, or carry, or worry about protecting. Physically, he was closer to being on Vlad’s level than he was Sam and Tucker’s. And mentally, well, he didn’t want to flatter himself; Vlad was pretty much a genius. But Danny had a knack for rapid skill acquisition and could keep up pretty well when he had to.

“You have mentioned in passing, on several occasions, that you are doing poorly in school,” Vlad ventured cautiously, like Danny was going to start yelling at him for some reason. Instead, Danny just gestured for him to continue; he was curious where Vlad was going with this. “May I ask why?”

“Because I spend all my time hunting ghosts, which means I skip class, don’t sleep at night, and never do my homework. Why?”

“If you’d like, so long as I’m not overstepping any boundaries-”

“Are you offering to help me with my homework?” Danny asked incredulously. Vlad pursed his lips at being interrupted yet again, but nodded. Danny was floored. “Why?”

“You’re extremely intelligent. You understand the complex biological processes that I have explained during our previous sessions, as well as a great deal of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. From our years spent fighting, I know you to be highly observant, able to make split second decisions and alter your tactics to best fit the situation. You are capable of rapid skill acquisition. I have seen you copy my abilities or those of other ghosts after only observing them once. That someone as remarkable as you could be failing at anything is a tragedy, but something as mundane as public education? That is criminal, and I would know.”

Danny knew his face was glowing bright green with embarrassment. “I’m not…really any of that,” he protested haltingly. “I just get lucky a lot.”

“You blush so prettily when you’re flustered.”

“Vlad!” Danny warned sharply. Now was not the time. Wait, no, there was _never_ going to be a time for that, what was Danny thinking?

“I am going to prove that you are capable of everything I just mentioned,” Vlad declared breezily, completely ignoring his previous statement and Danny’s reaction to it. “What homework are you supposed to complete tonight?”

“I have an essay due on themes in Arthur Miller’s _The Crucible_.”

“One of my favorites. Come, back to the study. I’m going to turn you into a literary genius even if it kills you. Again.”

Great, Danny thought sarcastically as he followed Vlad back up through the ceiling. This was exactly how he had wanted the evening to go.

* * *

 

“Mr Fenton, a word if you please,” Mr Lancer called while Danny was shoving his notebook into his backpack. Sam and Tucker exchanged a look with Danny and then with each other, but Danny waved them off. He knew exactly what Lancer wanted to talk about. It was a little suspicious, after all.

“Is this about my essay?” Danny asked as he approached the desk. “Because I promise that is one-hundred-percent my own, original work.”

“Most students don’t feel the need to defend against plagiarism out of the blue like that, Mr Fenton. Who wrote this for you?” Lancer demanded. Honestly, Danny couldn’t even must up any indignation. He was just as surprised as Lancer. Who knew Danny could actually write? And read? Well, Vlad apparently knew, but screw him. He made Danny rewrite the essay four times because he was a perfectionist bastard.

“It’s all my own, I just had a very, um, demanding proofreader,” Danny hedged. “Besides, this isn’t the first decent thing I’ve written for you. I got an A- on that poetry analysis test in freshman year.”

Lancer nodded, still not convinced but obviously entertaining the notion. “You’re work tends to be all over the place. When you understand the material, you master it. When you don’t, you fail entirely. Most of the time you fall into that second category. Care to explain what was different this time?”

“I spent the weekend with Vlad, I mean, Mayor Masters, and he insisted on critiquing,” which was a really nice way to say tearing apart without mercy, “my essay. Apparently, _The Crucible_ is one of his favorites and he was offended by how badly I was butchering it. After talking with him about it though, I understand why he likes it so much. I think I might actually like it too. Weird, right?”

“Will wonders never cease,” Lancer declared incredulously, “The mayor actually got you to enjoy a piece of literature? The man is a miracle worker.”

“Something like that,” Danny conceded with a sigh. He _had_ enjoyed the play, after actually bothering to read it and paying attention to what he was supposed to be getting from it. Then he and Vlad talked about it for a while, which was a better conversation than Danny had expected. Writing the paper was harder, but only because Vlad was such a stickler about grammar and punctuation, which were admittedly not Danny’s strong suits. “I know it’s out of the ordinary for me, but I really did try hard with this one, sir. You can talk to Vlad if you don’t-”

“No no no,” Mr Lancer interrupted briskly, “Let’s not bother the mayor, he’s a very busy man. I’m willing to accept your word on the matter on one condition: you keep up with this quality of work.”

“What?” Danny blurted. Lancer believed him? That was good, since he was actually telling the truth this time, but it was still completely unexpected.

Danny didn’t like the smug smile on his teacher’s face. “Now that I know what you’re capable of, Mr Fenton, I will not accept anything less than this. Do you think you can deliver on that?”

“Yeah, I mean, um, yes sir,” Danny stammered. Holy shit, Lancer was actually proud of him. Maybe Vlad wasn’t completely wrong. Danny did used to pull straight A’s before the accident, after all. He could probably do it again, with a little effort and a little help.

“Run along, Mr Fenton. And congratulations on what I hope is the first of many perfect papers,” Lancer said, handing the essay back to Danny. On the top of the paper in red ink was a one hundred percent with a question mark next to it, like it was confused about the whole thing too.

Danny’s good mood lasted from Lancer’s desk until he made it into the hallway where he had forgotten that Sam and Tucker were waiting for him. At first, he couldn’t understand why they looked so angry. “What’s up guys?” he asked, closing the classroom door behind him.

“What’s up? WHAT’S UP?” Sam shouted, throwing her arms up in the air. “Tell me you were lying. Tell me that you were just trying to get Lancer off your back.”

“Lying about what? What’s wrong?” Danny asked again. He was missing something. What had they overheard that could have made Sam this mad?

“You didn’t really spend the weekend with Vlad, did you dude?” Tucker elaborated. Oh shit. They had heard that part. Because Danny couldn’t keep his big, honest mouth shut for the first time in three years. “Because that’s just- not right. You wouldn’t do that. You couldn’t, you guys would have killed each other.”

This was not how Danny had wanted to have this conversation. “So, um, here’s the thing,” Danny began with a painfully awkward chuckle, “Vlad and I aren’t archenemies anymore? And we haven’t been for…a while now. We didn’t plan it, it was something that just sorta happened. I mean, he’s still a self-centered, egotistical screwball. And we don’t always get a long,” that was the understatement of the century, but Sam and Tucker didn’t need to know that, “but we’ve made a truce, and it’s not horrible. So yeah, I spent the weekend at Vlad’s. I’ve been doing that for a while now.”

The end of day bell rang, but the three teens didn’t move. Sam and Tucker continued to stare at Danny as though he had accidentally grown two heads again.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Sam finally declared. Danny winced. He hadn’t wanted them to find out all at once like this. Ideally, he would have introduced them to the concept gradually like he was with his parents. “Can’t you see it’s a trap? Danny, he’s probably using you!”

“I’m not going to say he wouldn’t, because he totally would, but if you’d just listen-”

“Listen to what? Why would you do this? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten all the horrible stunts he’s pulled,” Sam said, crossing her arms defiantly in front of herself.

“Or the creepy shit he says about your mom, or the awful stuff he says about your dad, or that time he tried to make you and your sister fight to the death,” Tucker listed, ticking them off on his fingers as he went. “And that’s just to name a few of his shitty habits. Seriously dude, why would you even want to be around him?”

There was no good way to explain it that didn’t boil down to the fact that Vlad had powers and they didn’t. At the most basic, that was the difference. Sam and Tucker were not going to like that answer, but it was the most truthful Danny could manage.

“Vlad and I have come to an understanding. I’m not going to say he’s not that bad, because he is. I’m not denying the stuff he’s done. But he hasn’t really done anything to us lately. And he’s not made comments about my parents in a really, really long time. I’m not asking you guys to like him, or even have anything to do with him. Just, I don’t know, accept that I want to?”

“Ignoring that entire pile of bullshit that you just spouted,” Sam spat, “You didn’t answer Tucker’s question. Why do you want to spend time with that psychotic creep?”

“Yeah, dude. What could he possibly do for you that we can’t?” Tucker added in what Danny assumed was an unintentional reference to their Career Day conversation.

“He’s…we’ve just got a lot in common, okay?” Danny defended hotly. He didn’t want to explain it to them. This was another situation where they were on the outside looking in and just had to trust him. It was a tall order in this scenario, but how was Danny supposed to explain the connection he felt with Vlad without sounding like a brainwashed weirdo?

“Like what? Other than your powers, what could you possibly have in common with Vlad Masters, of all people?” Sam demanded, then her expression twisted into a grimace that Danny never wanted to see again. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? He has powers and we don’t.”

“It’s not like that!” Danny shouted in frustration. “It’s not a competition! I’m not abandoning you guys just because Vlad can walk through walls without my help.”

“He’s gotta be brainwashed,” Tucker said confidently. “Or maybe possessed. Our Danny would never do something like this.”

“Tucker, do you know how difficult it would be for a ghost to possess me? Not even Vlad can do it,” Danny declared peevishly, momentarily distracted from their original argument. Honestly, possession? Had they forgotten who they were talking to?

“Until we know for sure what’s going on,” Sam said firmly as she unzipped her backpack, “We’re going to have to keep you somewhere safe. Sorry Danny, but this is for your own good.”

“Sam, what are you doing,” Danny demanded, taking a step backwards. “You’re kidding. You wouldn’t-”

Sam pulled the spare Thermos out of her backpack and uncapped the lid. “Don’t worry Danny, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” she promised, hitting the button to activate the tractor beam.

Danny dove backwards through the floor. They couldn’t have honestly expected that to work, right? How inept did they think he was?

It didn’t matter. Sam and Tucker might have been completely human, but they knew more about hunting ghosts than almost anyone. Danny had to get out of there, fast. But where was he supposed to go? School was over, his parents would be expecting him soon. Would Sam and Tucker be waiting there for him? Danny could go to Vlad’s, but the older halfa wasn’t expecting him to visit today. After that argument, Sam and Tucker were probably expecting him to go straight to Vlad. He needed a plan.

Staying beneath the floor, Danny followed the sound of his friends’ voices.

“We can’t get anywhere near Vlad’s mansion,” Tucker was saying. “Danny was the one who could sneak us in.”

“I know,” Sam grumbled. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll stakeout his house. If he goes home instead of running straight to Vlad, we’ll know he’s not brainwashed. But if he doesn’t show up…”

“We’ll have all the proof we need. Got it. How are we going to make sure that he stays in the house?” Tucker asked as they continued out of the school.

“Remember a few months ago when Danny was telling us about that anti-ghost dome that one of his dad’s fraternity sisters had installed on their house? Danny said that it worked so well that not even Plasmius could get through it. If Danny shows up, all we have to do is activate that dome. It’ll keep him inside and Vlad outside, but we’ll be able to get through without any problems.”

It would have been a great plan, if Danny hadn’t heard every word of it. Thankfully, a clone could take care of literally all of that.

Slipping silently away, Danny found an empty alley close to his house to reappear in. Clones fell firmly into the “partial control when not transformed” category, but Danny tended to do well under pressure. Focusing too hard always made him lose control of this ability. The best way to do it was quickly, like ripping off a band-aid that was shaped like himself.

With a deep breath, Danny split in two.

“You go keep Sam and Tucker occupied,” he told the clone, who nodded in response. Danny handed over his backpack. Hopefully that would really sell it to Sam and Tucker.

Quickly, Danny pulled out his cellphone and sent a series of half-intelligible texts to Vlad. He then handed the phone to his clone, just in case.

“We’ve got this,” the clone promised, giving him a thumbs up and pocketing the phone before walking out of the alley and heading for home.

Danny transformed but instead of shooting into the sky, he decided that the safer path would be to go underground. Even with his invisibility he couldn’t be too careful. It might take longer to get to Vlad’s this way, but it was definitely safer. Hopefully, the older halfa had gotten his text messages.

Making his way through the town took less time than Danny thought. Before he knew it, he was coming up through Vlad’s secret basement lab, past the first floor, and into the study where he and Vlad had spent most of their time.

The room was cozy. The rugs, the couches, the chairs, they were all so plush and inviting. And the fireplace certainly didn’t hurt. Most of the mansion was cold and sterile. Danny was willing to bet that this was one of the few rooms, besides the lab, that Vlad used frequently. Danny didn’t understand why one man needed so much space, but he wasn’t a billionaire, either.

Without his phone to entertain himself, and with Vlad still at work, Danny began to look for other things to do. The room was full of books. Maybe he could read? Danny began scanning the shelves for familiar titles. By “familiar titles” he of course meant “things he was supposed to have read in English class but never did.” One title caught his eye. “Rose for Emily”, that sounded familiar. And it was thin enough. Grabbing it off the shelf, Danny settled on one of the couches.

* * *

 

“Well, you’ve certainly made yourself at home,” Vlad drawled, pulling Danny’s attention away from his book. Danny looked up, startled. Vlad was leaning against the doorframe, smirking at him. It had gotten dark at some point, and he had a slight crick in his neck. How long had he been sitting in Vlad’s study, completely engrossed in a book?

“Sorry not sorry,” he replied, tossing his book to the side and stretching. “‘Rose for Emily’ is fucked up. Why would that be on the mandatory eleventh grade reading list? She sleeps next to his dead body for **years**. That’s just gross. That’s the kind of thing that scars people.”

“Some people interpret the story as her doing much more than simply _sleeping_ beside him,” Vlad hinted pointedly with a raised brow.

“Again, gross.”

“What are you reading now? That’s much thicker than Faulkner’s prima opus,” Vlad asked as he made his way across the room to his desk, shucking his suitcoat as he went.

“ _The Great Gatsby_ ,” he replied as he grabbed the book and stood up. Floating over to the appropriate shelf, Danny put the novel back where he had found it. He wasn’t quite done reading it, but Danny figured it would still be there next time.

“Hmmm,” Vlad hummed lightly. “Thoughts?”

“It’s not the worst. At first, I was having trouble keeping track of which Egg was which because I didn’t actually care, so I had to start over once I realized that was kind of important. I like all the imagery. The green light, the billboard with the glasses. It’s easy to visualize.”

“Indeed,” Vlad said again, ever so lightly. He was obviously trying to hide his amusement. Danny scowled.

“Alright, spit it out.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“ ** _Vlad_**.”

“Fine, fine. But it’s a little funny, you must admit,” Vlad explained with a grin, “You tell me that you’ve had a row with your friends and are hiding in my house. I arrive, expecting to find you raging and full of righteous indignation. Instead, you’re curled up in my study, quietly reading. Daniel, less than a week ago you loathed literature.”

“Yeah, well, reading is what got me into this mess,” Danny grumbled. Taking a seat in one of the chairs across from Vlad’s desk, Danny began to explain his woes. “Lancer wanted to talk to me about my essay because it was too good-”

“It had better have been, considering all the work I forced you to put into it,” Vlad interrupted smugly.

“If you’re going to interrupt me, I’m just going to go hide in the ghost zone,” Danny threatened. Vlad mimed zipping his mouth closed and gestured for Danny to continue. “I told Lancer that you had proof read my paper, and he told me that he expected me to do that good from now on, and I was like yeah whatever I could probably do that.” Vlad opened his mouth to say something, but Danny glared at him and he snapped it closed again. “Except, I forgot Sam and Tucker were waiting for me in the hall and heard everything.”

“And by ‘everything’ you mean…?”

“That I was here, and that you helped me with my homework, and that this is a normal, semi-regular thing that we do.”

Vlad nodded, his amusement finally beginning to drain away. “I assume that they were rather displeased by the news?” he asked.

Danny snorted. “Displeased is an understatement. They were **pissed**. And then they decided that you had either brainwashed or possessed me, so Sam pull a Thermos on me.”

“They are aware how difficult of a target you would be for possession, correct? Holding you for any amount of time would tire even a ghost of my caliber,” Vlad pointed out.

“That’s what I told them!” Danny moaned, covering his face with his hands. “But then Sam tried to catch me in the Thermos, which was rude, but I was quicker than she expected and dove through the floor. I sent a clone home to keep them occupied and came here because I really, really don’t want to spend the foreseeable future crammed inside that stupid Thermos. Also because they’re mad at me don’t want to consider the possibility that I might actually talk to you of my own free will or something equally dramatic. Apparently, it’s easier to believe that I’ve been mind-whammied.”

“I see. Tell me, little badger, what’s the most upsetting part of this situation? Why did you come here?”

Danny sighed and peered at the older halfa through his fingers. “Honestly, I get why they’re mad at me. I should have told them that we had a truce thing going on.”

“Do they really have a right to be angry?” Vlad interjected curiously, “You are allowed to have secrets, after all. You aren’t obligated to tell them every single detail of your life.”

“This isn’t a ‘little detail’ and you know it,” Danny said, removing his hands from his face to glare at Vlad. Sighing, he explained, “We’ve always shared pretty much everything, but especially after the accident. They’ve been here for me when no one else could be. They’re worried that you’re gunna take me away from them. One, because you’re an evil asshole and that’s what you’ve been trying to do for years, and two, because you have powers and they don’t.”

“They’re jealous of your powers?”

“Not really. Tuck was, at first, but he got over it. But even with as close as the three of us are, there are somethings that they just can’t understand no matter how hard they try. Sam and Tucker can be there _for_ me, but they can’t be there _with_ me. Not for everything, anyway.”

Vlad folded his hands carefully on the desk and seemed to contemplate Danny’s words for a moment. “They do not wish for you to have someone with whom you can share your unique existence?” he finally asked.

That was almost right. “I think they’d be fine with me sharing it with another halfa,” Danny mused, “So long as it was pretty much anyone but you.”

“I suppose I deserve that,” Vlad conceded dryly. “You didn’t answer my original question: what about all this is bothering you the most?”

“Sam pulling the Thermos on me,” Danny answered. That was what hurt the most, that his friends were willing to hold him against his will rather than trying to understand what he was saying.

“I hate that stupid device,” Vlad muttered, leaning back in his chair. “It’s so…”

“Cramped.”

“Exactly.”

The two halfas sat quietly for a few minutes. It was comfortable, sitting in the dark with Vlad, with no noise but the steady ticking of the clock on the mantel.

Eventually, Vlad broke the silence. “I don’t know what to tell you. Or what you want to hear.”

“I don’t know either,” Danny groaned. “I didn’t want to be trapped in the thermos, and I didn’t want to be trapped at home, and the ghost zone isn’t a great place for working through my interpersonal problems, so I came here.”

“If it’s any consolation, I find it immensely gratifying that you chose to come to me,” Vlad offered. Danny gave him a tired but sincere smile. He was glad that he came to Vlad too. When things were going well between them, Danny couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. “I can’t offer you a solution, but I can get your mind off it.”

So much for not wanting to be anywhere else. Danny didn’t trust the glint in Vlad’s eye. It promised trouble. “And what exactly do you have in mind?” he asked cautiously.

“Why little badger, don’t you trust me?” Vlad asked rhetorically. Yes and no, but Vlad already knew that. Standing up, Vlad made his way to the door. “Go downstairs to the main hall, take the left, then go all the way to the final door on your right. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”

Without waiting for a response, Vlad walked out of the room. Danny slipped down through the floor, feeling equal parts trepidatious and curious. What was Vlad planning?

* * *

 

The fifth time Danny’s face smashed into the mat, he wanted to scream. This was Vlad’s plan to get his mind off things? Sadistic fruitloop.

“Come now Daniel, you’ll never improve if you don’t practice,” Vlad called from somewhere above him. Danny grunted and heaved himself back up. On the one hand, he hated how much Vlad was obviously enjoying throwing him around like a ragdoll. Danny could see it in his stupid, self-satisfied face as he turned around to face his opponent once more. On the other hand, he could use the practice, and it _was_ kinda fun.

“Hey, I’ve only made it this far by faking it,” Danny reminded Vlad and he settled into ready position. “I think I’ve done pretty good.”

“You’ve only made it this far due to your uncanny ability to copy other people’s fighting styles,” Vlad countered, lunging at Danny who managed to side-step just in time. “If this were a real fight-”

Danny darted back in and made a jab at Vlad’s ribs, which the older halfa easily blocked. “We’d be using our powers and I’d be trying to make you lose your temper and slip up.”

“True,” Vlad granted as he slowly circled around Danny, “But you rely too heavily on the psychological aspects of a fight.”

“I wonder where I learned that from,” Danny asked sarcastically before springing at Vlad, who caught him easily and flipped him once more onto the mat. This time Danny landed on his back, staring up into Vlad’s smug face. “Actually, I think I picked that up from Skulker, but we can blame you if you want.”

Vlad held out a hand to pull Danny back up, which he gratefully took. Sparring was a lot more fun than he expected it to be. Sure, he kept ending up on his ass, and that was more than a little frustrating. There was something…freeing? Exhilarating? It was hard to describe the feeling with a single word, but there was definitely something enjoyable about being able to throw himself at Vlad over and over and over with no end goal in mind, no threat to defeat. And the fact that it was _Vlad_ meant that Danny didn’t have to watch his strength or speed or any of the other things he had to be constantly aware of during the day.

“Tired yet, little badger?”

“You know I’m not.”

“Then let’s begin again.”

* * *

 

Danny waited nervously behind one of the trees in front of Casper High. His clone would be arriving any minute. Danny had to intercept and dispel the clone without attracting any unwanted attention from his classmates or worse, Sam and Tucker.

Danny still hadn’t come up with a plan to deal with Sam and Tucker. Spending the entire evening sparring with Vlad to purposefully get his mind off the situation was great, until he actually had to deal with his problems again. He had to talk to them. Preferably in a place that didn’t have access to a Thermos or any of their other ghost hunting equipment.

Just as the clone was coming into the schoolyard, somehow knowing to head straight for the tree that Danny was behind, Sam and Tucker arrived too, making a beeline for the clone. Danny couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but it didn’t look good. Sam was clearly agitated, waving her arms broadly as she talked at the clone. Tucker had his arms crossed, nodding along with whatever point Sam was trying to make.

Before Danny could make the decision to somehow surreptitiously interrupt the trio, his ghost sense went off. Really? Two days in a row? What was going on?

Coming down the already dilapidated street and, yet again, heading straight for the high school was a giant cobra ghost. Why were they so interested in the school? Or were they just coming for Danny? There were still too many unanswered questions.

“Guess I’m going ghost,” Danny muttered, transforming into his super alter-ego and flying out from behind the tree. “Hey scaley! Lookin’ for someone?”

The snake snarled at him and flared its hood, which Danny found weird because snakes don’t snarl, and lunged forward. Danny dropped down, and the snake flew over him right towards the school. Not exactly his best plan. Dany shot forward and grabbed the ghost snake by the tail, hoping to drag it away from the horde of screaming students who for some reason could never just evacuate the area. Spikes suddenly erupted down the lower length of its body, piercing Danny’s hands and forcing him to let go. Cold, green ectoplasm dripped down his hands. That _hurt_.

While Danny was distracted by his injury, the snake whirled around, thrashing its tail at the crowd of students who thankfully knew to get the hell out of the way.

“Danny help!” a panicked voice called from down below. Trapped in the bend of the snake’s body were Sam, Tucker, and the clone who was doing his best to keep his friends calm.

“Shit,” Danny muttered, shaking as much ghost-blood off his hands as he could before diving down and grabbing Sam and Tucker by the backs of their shirts. They hated being carried like that, but Danny didn’t have very many options at the moment. With his friends in hand, Danny darted back out of range of the snake’s snapping jaws. “Are you guys okay?”

“What the hell, Danny?!?!” Tucker demanded, but Danny didn’t have time to explain. Dropping them a little more roughly than he probably should have on the pavement outside the school, Danny sped back to the snake. So long as his friends were safe and not snake food, they could argue things out later.

His clone was valiantly attempting to keep the snake occupied with the Jack-O-Nine-Tails, but he was losing ground fast. Danny swooped in and shot an ice blast at the snake’s back while its focus was on his clone. Danny was suddenly glad that he had taken the time to master that particular power; clones were handy in a fight _and_ in day to day life. They were right up there with invisibility and walking through walls.

“Where’s the Thermos?” Danny demanded, barely dodging the snake’s fangs as it lunged at him again. Wasn’t cold supposed to slow reptiles down? Danny tried his ice powers again, this time using them to seal the ghost snake’s mouth shut.

“I’m a little busy down here,” his clone retorted, diving out of the way of the thrashing, spike covered tail.

Just as Danny was about to lament that fact that his own clone was backtalking him, the white beam from a Fenton Thermos came shooting from behind him, catching the snake and pulling it in. Danny turned around just in time to see Sam slam the cap back on, successfully trapping the ghost.

“Thanks, Sam,” he sighed gratefully, drifting back down to the ground.

“That’s a clone, isn’t it?” Sam deadpanned, jerking a thumb at the human Danny standing next to the ghost one.

“Yeah,” Danny admitted, snapping his fingers and dispelling the clone into a cloud of green vapor. All of the clone’s memories of the previous day came rushing back to him. Thankfully, nothing interesting had happened apart from Sam and Tucker making good on their threat to use the ghost shield. Unfortunately, dispelling the clone also made his backpack and cellphone drop onto the pavement. Danny winced. He hoped his screen hadn’t cracked.

Danny sighed as he switched back to his human form. Grabbing his bag and phone, the screen miraculously uncracked, he turned to face his friends. They didn’t look happy with him, not that he could blame them.

“So, if you sent a clone home, where were you?” Tucker asked. “Don’t tell us you were with…you know who.”

“Yeah Tuck, I was over at Vlad’s.”

“Dude, why?”

“I don’t know how to explain myself any more than I already have!” Danny shouted, completely exasperated. He understood their concerns. Hell, Danny still had concerns of his own. But this was something that he wanted. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, “We’re giving this truce thing a try. I’m not saying he hasn’t been completely awful to us. But he’s funny, and sarcastic, and we’ve found out that we can get along really well. And I **_promise_** that you guys don’t have to have any contact with him whatsoever.”

“We’re just worried about you,” Sam said, and Danny understood that, he really did.

“I know you are, and I appreciate that,” Danny admitted. “And as much as I hate you guys for pulling a Thermos on me yesterday, I’m also grateful that you’re willing to stand up to me like that.”

“I guess we were a little jealous, too,” Tucker added reluctantly. “Which was stupid. Just because Vlad can do all the same stuff you can do-”

“And more,” Sam interjected.

“Doesn’t mean you’re going to, like, abandon us or anything.”

Danny grinned. “You two are my best friend,” he promised, wrapping his arms around each of their shoulders and pulling them close. “No one, not even Vlad, is gunna take me away from you. We’ve been through way too much together for me to just dump you like Valerie on homecoming night.”

“Low blow, dude,” Tucker whined, but he leaned into the hug anyway, so Danny figured he didn’t actually mean it.

“Accurate though,” Sam jibed, leaning her head onto Danny’s shoulder.

Everything was going to be alright.

“By the way, I kinda got a bunch of ghost blood all down the backs of your shirts. You should probably change.”

“Ugh, Danny! Gross!”

“Seriously, man?”

Yep, everything was going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> I've based Danny's panic attacks on my own, which are triggered by my moderate to severe claustrophobia. I can only really write about my experiences with them, and how I handle them.


End file.
